The "billion" in bya is, by convention, the 109 "billion" of the short scale of the U.S., not the long-scale 1012 "billion" of some European usage. For this reason, there is potential for some confusion; and some scientists prefer the unit Gya, while others prefer Ga (Giga-annum). However, bya remains in more widespread use. In 1974 the UK switched from the long scale to the short scale.

Related units are mya ("million years ago"), and byr ("billion years"). These are traditionally written in lowercase. Ga or Gya has a capitalized first letter instead.